Photo by Blacknell

It’s official — Richmond, Virginia will be the site of the 2015 World Road Cycling Championships. The nine-day event will draw some of the world’s best male and female cyclists in competition for personal and national glory. The event, which encompasses road races and time trials, is expected to attract 450,000 people from over 70 countries to the city and pump $135.3 million into Richmond’s economy.

The last time I wrote about this, some commenters wondered why this was relevant. Richmond, after all, is two hours south of here. Well, two hours isn’t that far away, and it isn’t often that the U.S. — much less a city close to the District — gets chosen to host what’s roughly the equivalent of the World Cup of professional cycling. In fact, this will be only the second time since the championships kicked off in 1927 that the U.S. will host them — they were last held stateside in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1986.

Also, cycling is one of the most popular sports in the world, and by 2015, we cyclists will surely have won the long battle against our vehicular overlords. Call the world championships a good place to celebrate our newfound two-wheeled dictatorship.